Are the Gospel Accounts Actually Reliable?

Everything we are told about Jesus’ arrest, trial(s) and mockery are consistent with what we know of Roman practice in the first century and consistent with the political and social establishment of Judea in the time of Jesus. Although hyper-critics have called into question this and that detail, there is every reason to regard the gospel accounts of the juridical process that overtook Jesus of Nazareth as essentially reliable. Most of the noted objections, then, amount to something other than valid historical reasoning. – Craig Evans, “The Shout of Death” in Troy A. Miller (ed.), Jesus: The Final Days, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox), 28